ryan's doctrine for medicare attendees years from now. these are things that the obama campaign believes, like with big bird, governor recommendey said and they can use against him, not in the moment of the debate, but downstream in preparation for the second debate. like i said, that's the long game, that's the nuances answer, the nuanced spin for what they know internally was not a great night for the president, tuned make it better, they have a lot of work ahead of them. >> do you think, major, that the president was surprised coming out of a block by romney's performance and was therefore simply taken aback and never got back on stride? >> well, as bill said, incumbents often have problems in their very first debate. it is not unusual for presidents to be somewhat taken aback by the idea of someone standing right across from them and telling them they're wrong. that's not a typical experience for presidents in the oval office. it's exactly the opposite. but i think the president was taken aback, and when your challenger is funnier tha